Health Insurance: One Thing You Need as a Foreign Student in Austria | Created with FeelSafe.at

If you’re coming to Austria as a student or researcher, you’ve likely done your homework. You know that the quality of education is excellent, and that life as a student can be sweet.

The excitement of living independently in a foreign city, meeting interesting new people at parties – newcomers take full advantage of an exciting European lifestyle. But there are certain things you can’t know before arriving, like the Austrian bureaucracy! While life here is so enjoyable, it also comes with a major drawback: The bureau of immigration, otherwise known as the dreaded MA35.

Forget exams, this is the one thing you need to really prepare for as a foreign student in Austria!

Bureaucracy: Blessing or Curse?

The government organizes all aspects of daily life. Savvy locals may have a lifetime to figure out the labyrinthine bureaucracy – foreign students don’t have that luxury. You probably expect someone regularly dealing with internationals to be experienced and capable of servicing them, but oftentimes, you’re confronted by a stony-faced civil servant unable or unwilling to speak English – which usually happens when applying for your prized residency permit or visa which has to include a health insurance policy.

Austria has a very specific requirement when it comes to international student insurance, and even a very comprehensive coverage package may not necessarily be accepted. How do you solve the somewhat overwhelming topic of insurance, which is full of horror stories?

Focusing specifically on the issues international students face on this topic, the experts at FeelSafe.at present:

Health Insurance Myth Busting

Myth 1: Only public health insurance is accepted for your residence permit or visa

Universities, friends and even public institutions might tell you that public insurance is the only accepted choice. This is a myth and not true. For a long time there was no clear guideline of what a health insurance has to offer in order to be accepted and therefore, to avoid uncertainty, all students were sent to the public insurance. But since Jan 31, 2017 there is finally a clear regulation on what a health insurance has to cover for the visa and residence permit (first time and renewal).

Even a very comprehensive coverage package purchased may not necessarily be accepted if it doesn’t follow all the guidelines, and not all providers offering coverage for foreign students are actually accepted. So how do you know which ones are valid?

To save yourself a lot of time and stress, there is one private insurance that offers better levels of care and is guaranteed by the interior ministry to be accepted for your residence permit and visa application (first time and renewal) – FeelSafe.at. It takes out the mystery of whether or not the MA35 will accept the policy.

Myth 2: Private insurance is super expensive

Public health insurance offers decent coverage but has limitations such as only access to public doctors and missing benefits that are important for international students (e.g. transportation back to home-country if needed, etc.), which is why many students choose to go private. With other private insurers this comes at a steep price.

FeelSafe.at, however, provides comprehensive coverage that’s affordable. In fact, FeelSafe.at costs virtually the same as public health insurance, with better coverage!

Myth 3: The insurance industry is not service friendly

Policies can be confusing, complicated and contain hidden clauses. Since insurers try to sell you additional products, making them easy to understand simply isn’t in their interest.

FeelSafe.at understands that service should be swift and friendly. Whether it’s their live chat, hotline or in-person customer service, everything is in English. There are no up-sales, you get your ready-made insurance as approved by the government – easy, simple and fast.

Myth 4: The insurance industry is not digitalized

Another scary thing about buying insurance is that it’s incredibly complicated – partly because the industry is not digitalized. Processing takes weeks and you need to be physically present to get the process started, which includes many translated documents and painstakingly completed forms.

FeelSafe.at lets you purchase insurance in 5 minutes online and only takes 1 business day to process.

Myth 5: You will sign a contract in German

In addition to being extremely difficult to understand, contracts are always in German, which means that foreign students are forced to sign contracts they can’t read. FeelSafe.at is the
only health insurance that doesn’t require you to take a leap of faith.

Contracts are clearly explained and also available to download in English. Legally, the one in German still gets signed, but there is no need to sign something you don’t understand!

FeelSafe.at busts the myths, so only the facts remain. It’s 100% guaranteed to be accepted and offers all the benefits foreign students need: access to medical treatments, house calls by private doctors who speak your language, guaranteed coverage for stays in public hospitals, repatriation and more! Shortly put, it’s the best product for the best price, reliable, easy, fast, all available online and completely in English.

This was written by the Metropole editorial Team. Sometimes its an expat, sometimes a native, most of the time the lines are blurred, and sometimes we're sharing someone else's content, but we always say so. Oh yeah, and buy our magazine!
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